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The Soviet ambassador to China Yudin met with Chen Yi, mainly talking about this matter.
"Today is already the 25th, that is to say, your artificial satellite will be launched into the sky tomorrow? This is very fast. It seems that we are going to prepare a congratulatory speech." Boss Chen said.
Eugene: "The so-called ready-to-launch state means that the satellites and launch vehicles are already in place. However, when to launch depends on the weather in the vicinity of the launch site. Heavy rain, heavy snow, lightning, strong wind and other bad weather, Launch vehicles cannot be launched, and launching satellites when the weather is fine has the highest success rate."
Boss Chen: "The comrades in the Soviet Union have far surpassed our progress in spaceflight. We also have a spaceflight program, but the time to launch satellites will be relatively late."
Eugene: "After you publicly announced the space program, you informed us of some progress in recent years, and we learned that you have not only the short-range ballistic missile you showed last year, but also the medium-range ballistic missile. This makes our national defense The scientific research department is also very surprised, your progress in the development of missiles is very fast."
Boss Chen: "What is the success rate of this kind of artificial satellite launched by a carrier rocket?"
Eugene: "The launch vehicle is an extremely complex large piece of equipment, and it cannot be expected to have a success rate close to 50 percent. In fact, the space department gives a 60 to [-] percent success rate number to be precise. Before every launch , you should be prepared for both hands, celebrate when you succeed, and calm your emotions when you fail, find out the reason, and increase the success rate next time."
……
Tianjin Rocket Factory.
The two Dongfeng-2 test bombs passed all the factory inspection procedures and were pulled out of the workshop as a whole.Although the take-off weight of Dongfeng-2 is just over 40 tons, most of that is the weight of liquid fuel, and the structural weight of the missile itself is only five or six tons.
On the small branch line of the railway leading directly to the Tianjin Rocket Factory, two wagons have already entered the rocket factory and parked in the big workshop. The missile shells are hoisted by the crane on the roof of the workshop and fixed on the flat wagons.
The missile that just left the factory has no warhead/payload of course, the missile is now a white cylinder 17 meters long.In order to deceive the public, the workers of the Tianjin Rocket Factory continued to work on the wagon, wrapped the missile in a dark green canvas with "Yongli Company Tianjin Fertilizer Factory" written on it, and tied it tightly with ropes.
"Qian, should these two be called missiles or rockets?"
Hans Huetert asked Qian Xuesen.
"This is the carrier rocket. The first two stages of the Long March-1 carrier rocket." Qian Xuesen hesitated for a while, whether the first launch of the Long March-1 should start with these two bombs, or with the launch of Qianjin-[-].
These two missiles are mainly for load delivery tests. The first two stages are responsible for sending a thing whose weight and shape simulates the third stage of the Long March-1 into space, and then test whether the fairing detachment and the second and third stage detachment mechanisms are normal. .
The third stage of Long March-1 is tested with the weight-reduced DF-1/TK-3 sounding rocket alone.
If both tests are successful, then the combination of the three levels will be a complete Long March-1.
"The rocket factory has made a comprehensive reliability assessment of the product, Qian."
Hans Schutt says:
"Through the procedural sampling inspection of all processes, as well as the inspection of rocket assembly process standards and error rates, we can now basically determine that the overall reliability of the rocket is greater than 80%.
Chapter 161, the Soviet Union scored first
Southwestern Kazakhstan, Baikonur Cosmodrome.
In June 1955, the large-scale rocket/missile launch site built in this semi-desert and semi-grassland area was code-named the National No. 6 Missile Test Site during the missile test launch. Later, it was changed to mainly launch carrier rockets. A new name Baikonur Cosmodrome.
On the afternoon of September 9th, Sergey Korolev, the chief designer of the R-25 intercontinental missile/launch vehicle, visited the launch site in person and watched with his own eyes that this R-7 (7K8PS) launch vehicle put four assistants in the workshop. After the pusher is tied up, it is transported out of the workshop on a flatbed truck and transported to the launch stand to be erected.
"Sputnik One" has been installed to the tip of the rocket in the workshop, and then covered with a fairing.The rocket is erected at the launch site, stabilized with several fixed arms, and can be launched after fueling.
However, refueling is not yet possible, as the weather forecast provided by the Bureau of Meteorology indicates that launch conditions may not be favorable.
“克孜勒奥尔达气象中心发来的气象情报，9月26日中午，发射场有5到6级大风，9月27日凌晨风力可能会加强到6~7级，鉴于这种气象条件，我们至少应该等到9月28日再进行发射。”
The launch center staff officer in charge of liaising with the meteorological department told Korolev.
Korolev has been very busy in recent months, to the extent that he often fights all night.After arriving in Baikonur yesterday afternoon, he finally had a full sleep, but his face was still green.After listening to the staff's introduction, Korolev said:
"Then we will look at the weather forecast on the evening of September 9 and decide whether to refuel."
Adviser: "Hopefully we don't get cut short in the space race by the U.S. because of bad weather."
"This possibility is almost non-existent," Korolev said. "We have been tracking the dynamics of the Americans. Even if Sputnik [-] is delayed by a week due to weather reasons, there will be no problem, even if the launch of Sputnik [-] fails. , our second rocket will also be able to lift off before the Americans launch the first satellite.”
……
Beijing.
Tang Hua returned from Harbin, and the prototype of the Advance-542 satellite was still baking in the [-] reactor in Fangshan.
The radiation-eating satellites in the reactor are connected by cables, and instruments are used to check whether the main components inside are working normally.So far, the input and output responses of the core part of the satellite are normal, and the radiation protection measures seem to be doing well.
But Qianjin No. 30 cannot be taken out yet. The prototype must be baked in the reactor for 10 days according to the prescribed procedures, that is, it will be taken out on October 2.
At the end of September, there was another piece of real good news: Baotou Steel's No. 9 blast furnace was put into operation.
"On September 9, Baotou Steel's No. 22 blast furnace was ignited. On the evening of September 9, the first furnace of molten iron was smelted, and then entered the oxygen converter for steelmaking. By September 23, 1957, the rolling mill had produced the first batch of steel rails."
"The entire production chain from iron ore to steel rails is operating normally and orderly. The materials consumed for smelting meet the specifications and do not exceed the estimated cost. The number of on-site operators complies with the regulations formulated by the Iron and Steel Industry Bureau, and there are no overstaffing and no idlers."
Baotou Steel started construction in 1954, with a construction period of 3 years and [-] months, which is similar to the construction period of Wuhan Iron and Steel.
In fact, the construction progress of Baotou Steel is faster than that of WISCO, and the project coordination is better. After all, China already has the experience of building the first modern steel plant.As for it took three years to put it into production, it was because the project required the construction of a second iron ore supply center near Baotou—the rare earth-containing iron ore in Baiyan Obo. It is troublesome to separate rare earth and iron during smelting, and the smelting cost is high.
"Congratulations to all Baotou Steel construction workers and all iron and steel workers. You have achieved staged victory. I hope that with the same efficiency and quality, the construction of No. 1958 blast furnace will be completed and put into production in January 1."
"The establishment of Baotou Steel Metal Research Center is as important as the blast furnace. The responsibility of a large state-owned pillar enterprise is not only to produce products for the society, but also to research and develop production technology and production processes in this industry to promote technological innovation in this industry."
"If an enterprise is satisfied with being a production line operator, has no interest in productivity improvement, and has no sensitivity to technological progress, and accumulates over time, such an enterprise will change from a vanguard of national industrial production to a burden of the country, and finally become a burden of the country. The nation's salvation."
After the drafting of the telegram to Baotou Steel, there is one more thing.
On November 1957, 11, the 7th anniversary of the victory of the October Revolution, Khrushchev invited the chairman to Moscow to attend the celebration.
Of course the chairman was going to go, and Khrushchev also brought a delegation to congratulate the fifth anniversary of the National Day in 1954.Then, the Soviet Academy of Sciences and the Secretariat of the Council of Ministers also asked by the way, is Tang Hua coming?
After thinking about it, Tang Hua decided to forget it. November is the most tense time before the launch of the launch vehicle and satellite, and I can't get away from it at all.
After writing the "not going" telegram, Tang Hua turned his pen twice—no, let's go to Fangshan to see the radiation test situation of the satellite.
……
Baikonur.
On the evening of September 9, the wind power dropped from level 27 to level 6-3, which is ready for launching satellites.However, the meteorological department also forecast that tomorrow will be cloudy with showers. To be on the safe side, it is recommended that the rocket launch be on September 4.
Korolev walked into the launch site and walked to the feet of the R-7 rocket.After bundling four boosters with a diameter of more than 3 meters, the bottom diameter of the R-7 is 10.5 meters, which looks like a large firewood bundle. The 30-meter-high rocket needs to look up to see the tip of the rocket, and the metal shell shines in the setting sun.
The tip of the rocket is Sputnik 83.6, which weighs 51 kilograms. The main structure is a spherical instrument cabin with a metal shell, which contains two sets of radio transmitters and batteries. However, the main weight is the battery - 4 kilograms.The satellite also has [-] whip antennas. This is not a memory alloy that is folded on the ground and unfolded in space. When it is installed on the head of the rocket, the four whips are opened...
Because it is powered by batteries, after the batteries are exhausted, Sputnik One will be silent forever, and it can only be found by large-scale radar searches on the ground.However, this phenomenon will not last long. Since the perigee of the orbit is very low, the resistance of the atmosphere will gradually slow it down, and it will fall into the atmosphere after three or four months.
This 280-ton behemoth can only push an 83-kilogram object to the first cosmic speed-and during the flight, the rocket cannot have too many technical failures.
Korolev knows better than anyone the historical significance of launching the space age.In order to safely send Sputnik [-] into space, no matter how careful it is, it is worth it.
"Comrade Chertok, I have decided that the launch of the rocket will be postponed again, and it will take off on September 9 or September 29." Korolev said into the phone.
……